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U2 at Sphere is the nightmare future of music
- notatoad 3y agoare there any substacks that aren't just old men complaining about things?
- leesec 3y agoGatekeeping concerts now are we? I think the Sphere is awesome and I'm sure can accentuate great shows.
- Tao3300 3y agoIt would be gatekeeping if it was some flashy new upstart band of twenty-somethings. U2 has been around for about 900 years now. This is "old guy lamenting what the other old guys have done" which is something we need more of in general.
- rbanffy 3y agoThe Sphere is just a tool. People will learn to use it, and figure out what works and what doesn’t.
- listenallyall 3y agoThe whole concept of music as a visual medium is rather limiting. MTV was fucking awesome for little while, then it became entirely routine with maybe one cool new video every couple of months, then it became pretty boring, then it simply stopped showing videos because nobody cared anymore.
- rbanffy 3y agoDoes MTV still show music? I would expect a smaller repertoire considering audiovisual production is a lot more expensive than just audio.
- fatfingerd 3y agoIs that really down to the medium? I thought rights issues of music videos meant they preferred cheap content they totally owned. I.e. Beavis and Butthead couldn't release complete DVDs with videos implying MTV was excluded from revenue streams until they made non-music video shows.
- listenallyall 3y agoWhat could be cheaper than broadcasting content that other people produced, at zero cost to you? Problem is, just showing videos back to back like a radio station doesn't equal ratings, and no ratings means no advertising revenue.
- fatfingerd 3y agoThey were addicted to the big budget videos and glorifying production costs at a time when special effects were still very expensive, but the benefit to doing that was inherently dropping since any artist that could expect millions more in increasingly cheaper CD sales had alternatives to an expensive Ad/giveaway. That doesn't answer any question for me of whether the video medium was good or bad, clearly MTV's monopoly meant the only way to release videos was an economical disaster.
- addicted 3y agoThere’s an interesting case study here. Most Indian pop music comes from movies so nearly every popular song comes with a music video at no cost. It would be interesting to see what the breakdown of people who watch the music videos vs only listen to audio is.
- singleshot_ 3y agoIt is pure tragedy GWAR did not survive long enough to see this technology made available.
- Tao3300 3y agoI don't think they broke up, just that Dave Brockie / Oderus Urungus kicked the bucket. I remember really missing the cultural impact of GWAR in 2016. Edit to add: they're currently on tour! There are no more members left from the original lineup, but the original Jizmak da Gusha, the current Balsac the Jaws of Death, and the current Beefcake the Mighty have held such considerable tenure that they establish a strong persistent core.
- rinnith 3y agoGWAR is still around they released a studio album last year and they're still doing live shows.
- dnissley 3y ago> This is "old guy lamenting what the other old guys have done" which is something we need more of in general. Why do we need more of this? There's literally no shortage of it -- an eternal firehose of this sort of content in all actuality. We could do one of those listicles where someone takes a headline like "no one wants to work anymore" and posts examples of it going back to the invention of the printing press.
- Tao3300 3y agoCool. Glad you're more tuned into that cohort's capacity for reflection. I don't seek it out, so what I see is usually more of the "old guy lamenting what younger people do" variety. But that's great. Sorry you read too much of it. Maybe take a break?
- addicted 3y ago“Gatekeeping concerts” - What exactly is this supposed to mean? Are we not supposed to post our thoughts on the internet anymore? And maybe there’s an argument to go gentle on a small upstart effort but this is a billion dollar stadium.
- Eisenstein 3y agoJust go down another level to 'gatekeeping gatekeeping'.
- LeoPanthera 3y agoI would sell my first-born to see a Kraftwerk concert inside the Sphere.
- lagniappe 3y agoI was thinking Shpongle
- dylan604 3y agothe feather in Simon's hat would cause too much disruptions in the image
- bloopernova 3y agoChemical Brothers or Orbital for me. ooh ooh or Nine Inch Nails. The visuals in this "Disappointed" track in this video is really mindblowing to me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3sp6Hwp3nk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3sp6Hwp3nk
- wilg 3y agoGood news, if people don't like it they won't go and smaller concerts are still legal.
- JansjoFromIkea 3y agoAre there many 10000+ person shows where you don't wind up watching the screen rather than the band? I'd rather everyone just accept the draw for a show of that size is a combo of the set and the potential mass hysteria of a load of fans packed into the one space than anything else.
- goles 3y agoAt most professional sports games or concerts, at least in North America, most of the audience is staring at the Jumbotron or their phone anyways. If there’s a half second break in play or downtime some wacky in-game entertainment like keep your eye on the shell under the hat or guess as many items that do X in 15 seconds to win 0.50$ off 45$ concessions. I was hugely skeptical of the sphere after its whopping 2+ billion dollar cost but it looks like an incredible, unique experience. These venues will probably only ever be in destination locations, and this is really already what the modern venue experience is, just on what a couple billion dollars gets you. If people hate it there is probably a million run down theaters or grass fields patrons can go enjoy instead.
- aiisahik 3y agoThe author here has clearly never been to an EDM concern with lasers.
- celdon25 3y agoThe "v" in Rave stands for "visual". The author's point was simply that it was not Rock n Roll. Though in all seriousness, I suspect the author might have been just capitalizing on the venue's recent opening, for traffic to his blog. Though his other content looks fairly interesting. Can't blame him for the hustle.
- tptacek 3y agoDidn't the ship sail on this back at the ZOO TV tour?
- snakeyjake 3y ago>We have finally reached peak "I go to the concert to watch a screen and not the band." No. That's The Flaming Lips. If you go to a Flaming Lips concert and are watching them play their instruments, something has gone terribly wrong.
- garba_dlm 3y agobut this is more over the top, so this has outpeaked previous show
- jiocrag 3y ago> "I go to the concert to watch a screen and not the band." Chuckles in Phish fan
- soupfordummies 3y agoHa, as you probably know, over on the Phish subreddit there has been near daily arguments along the lines of will-they/won't-they play the Sphere
- dghlsakjg 3y agoSome artists are there just to play some great music, and some of them are there to put on a show. There are some artists that I don't really listen to day to day, but that I would love to see live because they are known for their live acts. In fact, there are some musical acts that simply don't translate to recordings, check out Itchy-O for another example. There's room for both.
- padjo 3y agoIt’s been awhile but the last flaming lips concert I was at I was looking at Wayne Coyne in a giant hamster ball not a screen
- daynigh8 3y agoDisagree.
- mvdtnz 3y agoFuture of a vanishingly tiny proportion of music that will ever be performed there, maybe. Certainly not the future of music.
- Simulacra 3y agoThe sphere is the greatest concert innovation I have ever seen in my life. A gimmick? Maybe. Awesome? YES!
- zactato 3y agoWhat's with people (boomers?) obsession with "Rock'n'Roll"? It seems like there's been a constant conversation over the last 30? years about what is and isn't rock'n'roll. I simply don't understand why people are so focused on some ultra-specific definition of what music is. Can you just choose to listen to the music you want and choose to go or not go to specific shows? I don't know if OP is intentionally trying to ragebait readers here or not, but it certainly feels that way. I get it, you're an old man who is angry that the world isn't the same as when you were 18 and happy.
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- LastTrain 3y agoWhat’s with people casting aspersions on an entire generation (boomers) based on something some person said?
- pvg 3y agotrying to ragebait readers No reason to take the bait and rage. I mean, unless it's against the machine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnyCJDYONSU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnyCJDYONSU
- cafard 3y agoI'm not sure that we boomers are crazier than anyone else, but there are enough of us that our voices carry. Musical snobbery has a long history, I think. As for rock-and-roll, it was a force, but it was far from the only thing going in popular music during the boomers' adolescence. This may have created anxieties for those who knew they were supposed to like the Stones (and did), but who also knew they were not supposed to like the Carpenters (but did). And there were the journalists who seemed to want to rule anything but rock out of the popular music world, so helping to feed the anxiety.
- Tao3300 3y agoI'm not sure how old Matt Ruby is. He's either an old Gen X or a young Boomer. Boomer-on-Boomer rock criticism seems like it should be valid.
- theogravity 3y ago> Sadly, photorealistic avatars will be the future of music too. Did you know ABBA is on a (virtual) tour called Voyage? Since launching in May 2022, the show has sold 99% of seats and makes $2M a week. And unlike pesky musicians, virtual avatars never age and can play anywhere/anytime without requiring amphetamines or someone removing the brown M&Ms from a bowl backstage. So get ready for more Metaverse-chorus-verse performances moving forward. Simone, anyone? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_(2002_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_(2002_film)
- khxkgjjxugx 3y agothe brown m&ms are such an interesting story. van halen shows were quite the production requiring a ton of safety measures spelled out in the rider. the band knew if there were brown m&ms, the rider wasn't fully being adhered to, can cast members lives my be at risk
- derefr 3y agoNo, not at all; this is about real performers, still performing "live" (i.e. doing a performance each night that people hear as it is performed, with live sound engineering, unscripted elements, etc) — but without the performers and crew having to live together in a tour bus 22 hours a day for months in order to do a tour. When you think about it, it's pretty weird that there is this expectation of musicians going "on tour" for nearly an entire year at a time, hitting every major city on a continent during each tour, and then doing it all again one or two years later. We don't expect e.g. musical theatre troupes to tour like that. Theatre troupes might sometimes visit select places, sure — but if you live in most parts of the world, if you want to see a stage production, you are going to be the one getting on a flight to go to where that production "lives" (and serves, most of the time, as an attraction for the city the actors live and work in!)
- dog_boxer72 3y agoBroadway shows tour all the time, this isn’t correct. I personally know a pit orchestra conductor who has been on tour for ~6 months
- diego_moita 3y ago[flagged]
- bazmattaz 3y agoHey im a father a this offends me.
- WarOnPrivacy 3y agoLet the Bono restore your faith in husbands and fathers. https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3248/2978423617_f00d3a39d5.jpg?v=0 https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3248/2978423617_f00d3a39d5.j... https://goodtimeswithmo.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/bono-party.jpg https://goodtimeswithmo.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/bono-par...
- FPGAhacker 3y agoWhy?
- bazmattaz 3y agoBecause U2 are awful music and even though I’m a father I’m don’t feel I’m old enough to like U2
- theragra 3y agoWhile this was entertaining to read, it is obviously clickbait and full of contradictions. If it were for author, electronic guitar should not exist. It is a gimmick, and allows too big concerts. Also, how a concert with couple hundred people is even intimate? Also, all concerts need to be intimate, bot possible to have different ones? Mostly though, article reads like eternal complaints of old people about young people and their tastes. Btw, people film concerts on phones because they want to have something to remember. I very rarely film short videos myself, and I value it when I check my Instagram stories archive.
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- orasis 3y agoIt seems like the author didn’t actually go to the show and is only providing second hand commentary.
- jrflowers 3y agoI agree with the author but he forgot to mention that being forced to endure U2 in order to enjoy a cool piece of technology is both the nightmare past and future of music. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253530823 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253530823
- dylan604 3y agoat least they didn't shove the new album to your device
- HappyDaoDude 3y agoEventually their singularity AI's will project their new album into your dreams AKA Futurama. ;)
- dylan604 3y agos/dreams/nightmares/
- gremlinsinc 3y agoEveryone rags on nickleback, but at least they never changed their sound really, and still sound like a 5 cent Creed cover band, U2 was amazing until they weren't, and they'll probably never get back to their roots where they can actually make real music.
- readyplayernull 3y agoRemember people in the 80's carrying big stereos? What we need now are personal music spheres.
- gremlinsinc 3y agoI think those are called disco balls.
- avgcorrection 3y agoI like Tool's concert aesthetic. They have visuals. The vocalist is often in the back with the instrumentalists. They have sort of an anti-LA vibe while being definitely a very Californian band. Faith No More seems like another anti-rock-cliches rock band (or: alternative). As for U2: they just seem like the least interesting rock band to me. Like a Foo Fighters with boring syncopation.
- WarOnPrivacy 3y ago> As for U2: they just seem like the least interesting rock band to me. Is U2 interesting? I've no way to tell. Grinding songs thru years of weaponized repetitiveness makes them experiences to avoid. I'm not saying overplay pollution is U2's fault. They're the particles, not the dispersant.
- listenallyall 3y agoI've seen many clips on social media from the U2 shows, however no instances where the visuals matched, or had any connection to the music. It mostly looked like a giant screensaver. Maybe I missed some highlights?
- jcastro 3y agoI find it ironic that the author mentions how much better watching Pink Floyd at Pompeii is better. Roger Waters is probably salivating at the prospect of putting The Wall in the Sphere.
- Eisenstein 3y agoThe Wall was designed to be an audiovisual experience first and an album second.
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- baz00 3y agoThis is just an attempt to polish the gigantic steaming turd that is U2. Also fuck the sphere things. They’re building one in London. Its a hellscape of light pollution made to take more money off people to fill the pockets of greedy bastards like U2.
- cracrecry 3y agoI had to translate a text for school long time ago. It was in Latin, written thousands of years ago. It was about an old guy lamenting how young people was crazy and losing the important things in life that his generation enjoyed. The important genres of music like Jazz or Rock n Roll generated this rejection reaction from older generations, but it looks like Rock n Roll people today have become the elders.
- kthejoker2 3y agoThe Sphere feels a little like the Ghost in the Shell future we were pitched in the 80s. Not sure if it's good or bad but it definitely feels future-y.
- xnx 3y agoWill seeing a show at the Sphere be appreciably different from watching one in the Apple Vision Pro? Sphere has larger FOV, but Vision Pro is 3D.
- soupfordummies 3y agoSupposedly the sound quality at the Sphere is state of the art too. (Of course, not to mention physically being there which is an intangible that you can't really replicate.)
- frendiversity 3y agohttps://youtu.be/M8DxBgz3afg https://youtu.be/M8DxBgz3afg
- rasse 3y agoI get the angst. There's nostalgia and the evolution of art and culture may seem like a threat or violation towards that nostalgia. Yet, whenever I read about someone wanting to halt that evolution and freeze culture, it seems indicative of a failure to grasp what culture is. Culture is the evolution, not one state. The concept applies to any kind of culture, not just art. If we didn't have the capacity to take a step beyond rock concerts, we would've never had the capacity to take a step towards rock concerts in the first place.
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- miiiiiike 3y agoGo watch the videos, The Sphere looks incredible. What’s the problem? Go see the band in Brooklyn and get one experience. Go see them in Vegas and get another. That’s how it works. That’s how it’s always worked.